Three women founders will have a chance to earn a $10,000 non-dilutive grant at a purpose-driven DMV showcase in mid-November.
The Agora Initiative is hosting its second contest of the year for female founders on Nov. 12 at Halcyon House in Georgetown, featuring three pitches from health technology companies. Fifty-eight entrepreneurs applied to present, and digital health and biotechnology startups dominated that pool, per Agora cofounder Kelly O’Malley.
Last year just 2% of money went to firms founded only by women.
Women founders are deeply underrepresented when it comes to venture capital in the US. Last year just 2% of money went to firms founded only by women. When they have a male co-founder, the outlook gets a bit better. Those companies nabbed 21% of investments in 2024, per PitchBook data.
The trend translates to the DC region. Locally, female co-founded businesses raised $255 million last year, out of a total of $2 billion in DMV venture capital activity.
Just under half the applications for the latest Agora Initiative competition were from Marylanders, while the other half were split between DC and Virginia.
“With such a competitive pool, narrowing it down to just three finalists wasn’t easy,” O’Malley told Technical.ly. “The committee focused on selecting founders with strong early traction and the potential to be truly venture-backable.”
Finalists will join past participants like Lyme Alert, an at-home tick testing kit for Lyme disease, who won the Agora Initiative’s spring 2025 competition.
Fraud detection and microsurgical tech
The companies taking part in the showcase span the health industry, including innovations in fetal surgery and diagnostics. Lucor, a DC startup, specializes in health insurance fraud detection using artificial intelligence.
“It’s an incredible honor to be selected,” said founder Krystal Erickson. “We need more spaces that don’t just give women a seat at the table, but empower them to build the table itself.”
Fetal Therapy Technologies, a startup spun out of Johns Hopkins University building microsurgical tools for fetal surgery, will also pitch.
“Being selected as a finalist is incredibly meaningful to us,” said founder and CEO Selena Shirkin. “It marks the transition of our work into a real, investable company, and validates the mission we’re working so hard to build.”
Diagnostic tech startup CurieDx in Baltimore is the third selected company to present at the showcase.
“We’re on a mission to radically transform healthcare,” said founder Therese Canares. “There are no other communities like this in our region and we’re proud to represent CurieDx and Agora.”
The winner and finalists will be looped into the Agora Initiative’s programming, including curated dinners, mentorship and network connections, per O’Malley.
Sponsors include banking giant J.P. Morgan, financial services firm Tarsus, human resources management firm PairPEO and local accelerator Halcyon House.
“Agora has been a wonderful community that we’ve had the privilege to support since inception,” said Jeff Wanner, the CEO and president at PairPEO. “I’m both impressed and proud of what Agora has achieved in such a short time and can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2026 and beyond.”
